Looking to purchase B7 A4, things to look for?

[supertuner12010]

Like the title states, I am looking to get into an A4 B7. I had a B6 I bought for 3k, did timing belt to be safe, other maintenance items, ECS RA4 clutch/flywheel conversion later and I loved the car. However I convinced myself that I needed something with more room to better accommodate my job at the time. So I bought a heavy, underpowered Jeep Liberty 2011, and got myself into a 23k loan after ttl, and a suv that isn't fun to drive, has limited capability in everything it does and gets shitty gas mileage. Long story short, going to trade in the jeep for a lower priced better car.

Looking to trade for something under or around 10k, after I put 2k or so down and negative equity is added to new loan. I should be right around or under 10-12k. I have found plenty of B7 A4's at 7-10k depending on mileage. After reading a bunch about cam followers, carbon buildup, fueling problems; I think those seem to be the biggest issues with the B7's.


Most of the B7s I am finding are around 100k miles. This is what worries me the most. The cam follower would be cheap insurance to do from the get go. A timing belt would possibly be in order depending if the dealer has records of it being done previously. All bargaining tools to lower price if not. The carbon buildup is another story though, I am worried of getting a fsi that has been neglected that would require me to pull the head to clean valves and have the car down just after buying it.

Are these concerns sound? Most of the threads I have seen are years old. I know that a vented to atmosphere catch can, along with w/m would help deter future carbon and after that just be a maintenance item. Cam follower regular maintenance. And HPFP would probably need to be upgraded along with DV to insure no problems later on after stage 1 tune.

Any other common problems to look for? Any reason to really look elsewhere? All other cars in a similar category as the A4 seem to be priced much higher. Nothing at or below 10k in same year range comes close quality wise.

[Older_not_Wiser]

- Cam follower, yes, it is an issue. Look for a car that has records of it being changed regularly (although the dealer wont do it). You should check with AoA and see if the Cam, Cam Follower and/or HPFP have been replaced under warranty by them. You might want to stay away from cars where it has since the Cam follower/cam issue can cause other problems with timing chain or oil pump that may not show up right away.

-Compression check. Do it or have some one do it who knows what they are doing. It is a good piece of information to avoid trouble.

- Oil consumption. Some people have frustrating oil consumption problems. It seems to be sporadic, some do, some don't. This one is hard to spot as it takes some time to figure out if it is consuming oil. I bought mine with 67K on the odo and service record showed that rings were replaced by AoA under warranty at 44K. I paid another $200 to get an additional 72 hours to cancel the deal, no questions asked. I topped off the oil to max on dipstick and drove the shit out of it for 3 days, probably put 1200 miles on it and oil level barely moved off of full, so I pulled the trigger and completed the deal. Not everyone has that option. I usually burn 3/4 of a quart in my 5000 mile oil change interval.

- Oil pressure. There seems to have been an uptick in people having balance shafts or cams oil starve. Again this one is hard to determine if there is a pending issue. No oil pressure gauge. The stock sensor is a Yes/No sensor. It either has oil pressure or it does not. You may be able to get a shop to throw on an analog gauge to see where it is at.

- Carbon Cleaning. Don't worry about it. Sure, it happens, but does not seem to cause severe problems in most cases. I would say most people on the forums have not done it and we are enthusiasts willing to go the extra mile. Then think of all the people not on the forums who are not doing it or even thinking of it. It degrades performance a little and you feel it if you do perform a carbon cleaning but a lot of people never do.

- Timing belt. Has to be done around 100K. If no record of it being done, negotiate the best deal you can, then have them knock another $1K off to get the Timing belt done. It can be done cheaper, especially if you do it yourself, but not much cheaper if you have someone do it.

Seems like you are on the right track. Be informed, check out cam follower and compression at a minimum on every car you look at. If you can get some trustworthy info on Oil Consumption and oil pressure, even better.

[Okedokey]

Borrow a VCDS and scan for codes after test drive.

Check coolant flange for leaks.

Remove oil cap whilst idling, if its easy, the PCV valve needs replacing in all probability.

Put hand over exhaust and check out if its blowing shit out the back

Carbon clean doesn't require head removal. Im about to do it this weekend.

[Denio24]

Borrow a VCDS and scan for codes after test drive.

Check coolant flange for leaks.

Remove oil cap whilst idling, if its easy, the PCV valve needs replacing in all probability.

Put hand over exhaust and check out if its blowing shit out the back

Carbon clean doesn't require head removal. Im about to do it this weekend.

Mine blows shit out the back every morning. Currently losing about 1 quart every 1k miles -- and i push my car, A LOT!

To OP, look for a b7 that has xenons, a nice vehicle package (not the base model), and maintenance. Alot of 2.0t's have oil consumption problems and this may be due to sloppy tolerances out of the factory. Main thing is the cam follower. Any FWD b7 has the CVT, which is known for failures. The TIP auto comes only in quattro, and then there is the 6spd quatrro slushbox.

Overall my current experience with the b7 is not bad, as the most failure prone items are quite cheap to replace. It's a good platform even if some think that the 2.0t was a little underdeveloped.

One thing I did when I purchased my vehicle was a compression test and leakdown test. Carbon building will burn valves, and a leakdown test will tell you if any of your valves are leaking air. Ask the owner about oil consumption. Even if you have good compression, you may still burn oil as the oil control rings may be faulty.

[B-Time]

The TIP auto comes only in quattro, and then there is the 6spd quatrro slushbox.

Slushbox = auto.

[Denio24]

Its getting a little late. I meant 6spd manual.

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[Okedokey]

CVT is fine is you can keep up the maintenance. Mine runs smooth as.

[80sGuy]

Best ones are the non-modified bare-bone 'stock' versions, if you can find them.

[Forge04]

Best ones are the non-modified bare-bone 'stock' versions, if you can find them.

Why do you say that? I fall into this category lol

[torrque]

Like the title states, I am looking to get into an A4 B7. I had a B6 I bought for 3k, did timing belt to be safe, other maintenance items, ECS RA4 clutch/flywheel conversion later and I loved the car. However I convinced myself that I needed something with more room to better accommodate my job at the time. So I bought a heavy, underpowered Jeep Liberty 2011, and got myself into a 23k loan after ttl, and a suv that isn't fun to drive, has limited capability in everything it does and gets shitty gas mileage. Long story short, going to trade in the jeep for a lower priced better car.

Looking to trade for something under or around 10k, after I put 2k or so down and negative equity is added to new loan. I should be right around or under 10-12k. I have found plenty of B7 A4's at 7-10k depending on mileage. After reading a bunch about cam followers, carbon buildup, fueling problems; I think those seem to be the biggest issues with the B7's.


Most of the B7s I am finding are around 100k miles. This is what worries me the most. The cam follower would be cheap insurance to do from the get go. A timing belt would possibly be in order depending if the dealer has records of it being done previously. All bargaining tools to lower price if not. The carbon buildup is another story though, I am worried of getting a fsi that has been neglected that would require me to pull the head to clean valves and have the car down just after buying it.

Are these concerns sound? Most of the threads I have seen are years old. I know that a vented to atmosphere catch can, along with w/m would help deter future carbon and after that just be a maintenance item. Cam follower regular maintenance. And HPFP would probably need to be upgraded along with DV to insure no problems later on after stage 1 tune.

Any other common problems to look for? Any reason to really look elsewhere? All other cars in a similar category as the A4 seem to be priced much higher. Nothing at or below 10k in same year range comes close quality wise.

If you have around 12k to spend, I would go and buy a better car : 335i or xi if you need awd... It rung rings around the Audi stock, and modified it keeps up with an M3. Handles better, brakes better, looks better. I am so sorry of selling mine and buying this Audi A4 I have... it's a POS.

[torrque]

There you go , manual , premium audio, navigation, perfect:

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/d...0004/overview/

[KingWulfgar]

If you have around 12k to spend, I would go and buy a better car : 335i or xi if you need awd... It rung rings around the Audi stock, and modified it keeps up with an M3. Handles better, brakes better, looks better. I am so sorry of selling mine and buying this Audi A4 I have... it's a POS.

I completely disagree. Sure, it's faster (it's a 6-cyl twin turbo with nearly twice the displacement), but the 335 is a costly maintenance headache (spark plugs all the time, carbon buildup, etc). Plus, X-drive sucks compared to quattro and the A4 looks better. :D

[80sGuy]

I used to owned a very nice BMW 3 Series convertible and in one year I ended up spending nearly $10,000 in maintenance!

[torrque]

I don't want to turn this into a fan brawl here, I also like Audi's ( or used to until I bought this pos) , but I owned the 335xi for 35000 miles, and I changed spark plugs once. For peace of mind. I also changed all injectors, and I did it in about 4 hours and cost me 700 bucks for parts. Carbon buildup is normal even for the Audi A4, all direct injection engines will suffer at some point of this. The fuel is no longer sprayed over the valve, so valve is sucking in hot air with oil... hence the carbon.

You are right on the looks though, the A4 looks better then the 3 series of same generation, but handling, performance and road feel ?? Nowhere close.
over and out .

[KJack]

If you have around 12k to spend, I would go and buy a better car : 335i or xi if you need awd...

The 335i doesn't have a dipstick. Nice car, but that would be a deal breaker for me. I don't want to rely on electronics to know when my oil is dirty or running low.

[Theiceman]

The 335i doesn't have a dipstick. Nice car, but that would be a deal breaker for me. I don't want to rely on electronics to know when my oil is dirty or running low.

actually it does .. its situated right behind the steering wheel :)

[drmonkey]

actually it does .. its situated right behind the steering wheel :)

Damn...

[torrque]

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[Theiceman]

oh another thing to look for .. inspect the control arms carefully, especially the uppers . Have someone sit in the car without the engine running and turn the wheel left to right , look for splits and tears in the rubber of the upper bushings, they will separate as you try to turn the wheel if they are bad. or on there way to being bad

[torrque]

oh another thing to look for .. inspect the control arms carefully, especially the uppers . Have someone sit in the car without the engine running and turn the wheel left to right , look for splits and tears in the rubber of the upper bushings, they will separate as you try to turn the wheel if they are bad. or on there way to being bad

+1 on this. I also found front lowers to be shot on mine , together with both sides uppers at 125k , all cracked.

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[supertuner12010]

Thanks for all the info guys, I will definitely look out for them as well. The issue I have is that I will be trading in my Jeep so I need to buy thru a dealer. Some might not be as willing to let me do compression check or leak down. I think at least a compression check would be viable, if they refuse I will walk away. Only issue there are no standar a4's local that I have found, all the standard a4s I can find are over 500 miles away so I will be traveling. It is truly going to be an endeavor.


@Torrque- I had seen the 335i/xi compared to the a4 in man discussions, but was never really familiar with the car. Quick search locally they were 18k at same ear. After your comment and post I looked more and cheapest in 500miles is 12k or so. Not bad depending on what my money situation will be after I sell my sc300 project. However I looked at common problems, and it seems all parts are more expensive, even maintenance parts are quite a bit more expensive than the audi. I am guessing audi sharing with VW helps keep parts relatively cheap. I also do all my own mechanic work so I do save a lot on labor. I will at least test drive one though. I have had an e30 and an e36 and they both had nothing but problems, and quality throughout was lacking imo, I am sure the newer ones are miles better. The quality of my previous b6 is probably the best engineered car I have ever worked on though, everything is high quality and easy to work on. Only thing that thru me with the b6 was 3 squares lol

[supertuner12010]

http://www.cargurus.com/Cars/invento...ting=130999545

This is probably well within reason, $8k, only 100k miles. Carfax with 39 service records would probably give me lots of info as to what maintenance has or hasn't been done.

[B72011]

CVT is fine is you can keep up the maintenance. Mine runs smooth as.

Nah, CVT's are a rolling 5K trans repair bill---death and taxes sure as sun.........just like a blown CVT.

[Theiceman]

you are looking to pay high money for an A4 of this generation in my books. I doubt you would get it but would be nice if it was certified preowned if you are going through a dealer. then you are covered.

[torrque]

- Oil consumption. Some people have frustrating oil consumption problems. It seems to be sporadic, some do, some don't. This one is hard to spot as it takes some time to figure out if it is consuming oil. I bought mine with 67K on the odo and service record showed that rings were replaced by AoA under warranty at 44K. I paid another $200 to get an additional 72 hours to cancel the deal, no questions asked. I topped off the oil to max on dipstick and drove the shit out of it for 3 days, probably put 1200 miles on it and oil level barely moved off of full, so I pulled the trigger and completed the deal. Not everyone has that option. I usually burn 3/4 of a quart in my 5000 mile oil change interval.

.

Mine was using oil like crazy when i bought it, or so I tought... until I took out the intercooler pipes to find all the oil there... Changed the cam cover, and PCV valve, no oil issues anymore. Hasn't dropped anything in 3000 miles... and my car is treated badly, as in redlined all the time from my frustration due to lack of power when I drive it ...